Exploring the impact of business-to-business digital co-branding on brand equity and performance using data analytics : an action research case study - driving digital transformation within an engineering SME

Abstract

The exponential growth and increasing importance of digital channels in society has seen the B2B ecommerce market valued at $6.64 trillion dollars and growth is projected to continue at a rate of 18.7% CAGR until 2028 (Grandview Market Analysis Report, 2021). Despite this exponential growth, B2B brand equity strategies have not been significantly explored on digital channels. To remain competitive, B2B organisations need to leverage the various emotional and functional attributes that are fundamentally based within branding to assist in their success. Brands are said to be a cluster of both emotional and functional values that provide customers with unique experiences. Early research queried the applicability of branding to B2B organisations due to B2B purchase decisions being insensitive to brand values and driven by unemotional and rational values. However, research since the 2000’s, has continually echoed the importance of brands across the B2B industry (Cassia and Magno, 2018; Guenther and Guenther, 2019). The traditional strategy for B2B organisations to gain competitive advantage were mostly focused on functional attributes such as price, delivery and the required quality. However, more recent studies demonstrate that branding can explain up to 50% of the customer’s purchase decision, in comparison to price, which explains only 15% (Leek and Christodoulides, 2011; Biedenbach et al, 2015; Cassia and Magno, 2018). Reviewing this holistically, the increasingly competitive B2B landscape, the necessity of digitalisation in B2B industries and the importance of branding in purchase decisions mean that B2B organisation need to use methods to leverage competitive advantage to move into or remain in a favourable position. By furthering the understanding of how B2B co-branding on digital platforms could assist in driving brand performance improvement and brand equity, we can increase the understanding of how B2B companies can increase brand equity, which in turn can return both financial and non-financial organisational performance within the B2B industry (Cassia and Magno, 2018; Guenther and Guenther, 2019). On exploration of the current B2B branding and co-branding literature, it was evident that a gap in the research existed: the application of digital brand equity transfer strategies within B2B industries. More specifically, how co-branding strategies executed on digital platforms impact the brand equity of B2B organisations. There are multiple reasons driving the importance of closing this research gap, firstly, the exponential growth of B2B ecommerce market means that organisations operating in the B2B market have to look at opportunities to leverage competitive advantage (Grandview Market Analysis Report, 2021). Therefore, understanding how B2B organisations are impacted by brand equity transfer on digital platforms could create a deeper understanding of the role and importance of branding within these organisations, shaping managerial decisions for performance improvement. Next, the literature demonstrates that research into brand equity transfer is predominantly situated in the B2C industry. However, the differences between B2B and B2C organisations mean that the processes or framework cannot be assumed to be interchangeable. Limited research into brand equity transfer has focused on the impact of digital platforms. This research intends to understand the plausibility of B2B co-branding on digital platforms. By closing this gap, we hope to offer an understanding of how brand equity transfer strategies can impact overall financial and non-financial performance indicators of B2B organisations on digital platforms. Practically, this research delivers a method for B2B organisations to develop a process for co-branding implementation. By doing so, this paves a way for brand equity improvement and a reference for the development, implementation and analysis of B2B digital co branding campaigns. This thesis aims to achieve the above by using a longitudinal, action research case study. The action research case study used in this thesis was conducted across a 24-month period in the B2B organisation Royston Limited, which operates in the B2B diesel engineering sector. The opportunity to conduct research at Royston Limited has been presented through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, focused on increasing Royston’s e-marketing capabilities through digital co-branding. A multi-method research methodology is applied across a Preliminary stage and a following campaign implementation stage. The preliminary stage gathers data using interviews, focus groups and questionnaires that form the basis of a co-branding campaign approach for the secondary section of the methodology. The results demonstrated that when the B2B organisation was partnered with larger organisations in a digital co-branding campaign, an improvement was identified across various Brand Equity asset categories and Brand Performance indicators. Digital co-branding when conducted with larger partners demonstrated increases in brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality and demonstrated change in brand associations, leading to increased financial and non-financial performance indicators. It is argued that these results will benefit both the partner brand and the partnering brand, as co-branding campaigns should be considered to be mutually beneficial to both partners entering into the co-brand (Chiambaretto and Gurau, 2017). Positive relationships were identified when the B2B organisation was partnered with a larger brand but there was no consistency with results when digital co-branding was conducted with smaller, localised B2B partners. Positive relationships with larger clients were identified across multiple digital platforms, including search engines, websites, paid advertisement engines and the B2B social media platform LinkedIn. These outcomes contribute to the existing B2B branding literature, demonstrating that B2B digital co branding can positively impact brand equity and brand performance, enabling the improvement of both financial and non-financial performance indicators, shaping new methods for B2B brand management. The practical nature of this research paves the way for new methods to manage and optimise the B2B brand across digital platforms such as search engines, PPC, social media and websites by co-branding and develops a process for the implementation of such campaigns within B2B organisations. With organisations and consumers relying heavily on digital platforms in an increasingly competitive environment, this research provides important findings that can help in driving both financial and non-financial performance in B2B environments.